For many Americans, January is about New Year’s resolutions, cleaning up from the holidays, and getting back to work. And, believe it or not, for anyone planning to cash in miles or points for next year’s holiday travel, January is also the time to start thinking about making reservations.
The important number to remember is 331 — days. This is the number of days in advance that airline reservations can be made. For frequent flier awards, if space is available at all for peak dates, it can sell out in hours. (In fact, one year, I literally sat up until midnight to book some American space for myself and my family to South America, and by the morning, there were no seats left.)
Not all airlines make award space available on every flight, except for those dreaded “double mile” awards, referred to as “standard” or “anytime” awards. However, in most cases there are at least a few “saver” seats on each flight for the awards. Who wants to use more miles than they absolutely have to for a trip?
As I write this post on January 11, flights are only open for booking until Dec 7, 2011. There’s a little time for potential travelers to check out school calendars, work situations, etc. The busiest days are almost always the weekends — Friday, Saturday, Sunday — before Christmas and the days right after the holidays. In 2011-12, this translates to Dec. 16-18, Dec 23-24, and January 2, 2012.
Even Christmas Day and New Year’s Day themselves have become increasingly popular travel dates. Traveling on the holidays is not just for people who don’t observe those holidays. Many of my clients now ask for afternoon flights those dates to allow them to split the day with two families, or to maximize travel time while still having a brief celebration at home.
Believe it or not, there’s actually one recent development with airline mileage programs that makes holiday planning easier too. Which is that most carriers allow travelers now to book one way tickets. So it’s possible to book an outbound flight without waiting until the return opens up. In the past, when round-trip tickets were required for the “saver” tickets, by that time the return flight was bookable, the first flight was sold out.
Yes, there is some risk in booking early, in that changes or cancellation does generally result in a change fee, or a fee to get miles re-credited. But, since mileage awards are not nonrefundable (up to now), it’s a smaller risk than buying tickets.
In addition, since anything connected with travel is higher-priced around the holidays, using frequent flier miles during this time might be the most cost-efficient use of you reward travel. Plus, it leaves more money for accommodations, meals and next year’s Christmas shopping.
And, unlike the gifts you purchase early, then can’t remember where you put them, airline tickets, purchased with miles are almost always just a click away in your in box.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
